Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 383 - 32: Cheering Song

"Everyone, any ideas yet on Lin’s batting anthem?"

Looking at the younger members of the Supporters Group in front of him, Masao Otake slapped his hand on the table with a "bang," snapping everyone out of their thoughts.

Masao Otake, 60 years old this year, is the current president of the "Eagle Road Alliance," the SoftBank Hawks’ Kyushu Region supporters group.

The "Eagle Road Alliance" is one of the civilian supporter groups of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, composed of four affiliated groups: "Heavenly Soaring Hawks," "Genkai Hawks," "Radiant Soaring Hawks," and "Yokaroumon" (a Kyushu dialect meaning "Alright, alright, indeed").

Because the organization’s members usually wear traditional "hakama" attire to the stadium to support the team, they are also commonly referred to as "Hakama."

The "Eagle Road Alliance" generally focuses its support activities around the Kyushu region, and its members mostly only go to Yahoo Dome for support, except for special occasions after the fourth game of the Japan Series.

It can be said that this is a thoroughly local supporters’ group.

As the current president of the "Eagle Road Alliance," Masao Otake, coming from Osaka, is not a fan of the Kintetsu or Hanshin teams. Instead, he supported the Nankai Hawks, whose home was once at Osaka’s Namba Stadium, since childhood;

Even when the team decided to move, he brought his family along with his beloved team to Fukuoka and settled down here.

Since the establishment of the "Eagle Feather Alliance" (the predecessor of the "Eagle Road Alliance") in 1998, he has been a member of this group.

Over the past years, no matter how the team’s name changed, Masao Otake would unwaveringly go to the dome to support the team whenever time allowed, knowing every name from the upper management to the coaches, from the first team to the second team, and even the developmental players. He could speak eloquently about their technical characteristics.

This dedication has earned him significant respect within the "Eagle Road Alliance," and even many players in the current SoftBank team know this old man who speaks with a Kansai accent and gets particularly irritable on match days.

However, this esteemed and authoritative leader of fans has recently been troubled by Lin Guanglai’s support anthem.

"Everyone, let’s try harder!!!"

"Today is the last game of the team’s away series against the Ham Team, and counting tomorrow’s travel day, we must complete the song by Tuesday—otherwise, when little Lin takes the field to bat during the game, we’ll still be singing the generic team anthem, which would be so embarrassing!"

Seeing that his words hadn’t sparked much enthusiasm, Masao Otake added fuel to the fire:

"If it were another player, it wouldn’t matter so much; we could take our time—but the problem is, this is one of the very few top picks the team has secured over the years, and the standards should definitely be higher."

"Even the fans of the Ham Team have already composed a song for Ohtani Shohai, and they’ve even sung it during the games in the past few days—are we SoftBank fans really inferior to them?"

"And I’ve heard that those guys from the ’National Green Warriors’ are also preparing related actions, saying they’re waiting to sing when the team goes on an away match to their place..."

These words caused the members of the "Eagle Road Alliance" on the scene to explode.

"What? Those Green Warriors try to get ahead of us? No way! Absolutely not—if they really beat us to Lin’s anthem, won’t we lose all face?"

"Exactly, we’re the ’Eagle Road Alliance’ rooted in Kyushu, and those Green Warriors are always thinking about these trivial things—enough talk, let’s pull an all-nighter tonight! We must sing it for Lin at this week’s home games against Orix!"

"Don’t flinch! Just do it! Men of Kyushu never lose to others! Why should we fear those Green Warriors? Let’s do it!"

Seeing that his provocation had worked, a sincere smile appeared on Masao Otake’s somewhat aged face—honestly, as the current president of the ’National Green Warriors,’ this Kansai man, who had always had a bad temper since he was young, didn’t want to be outdone by them.

The ’National Green Warriors’ group is another civilian supporter organization for the current SoftBank Team, and in terms of history, they might even be older than the ’Eagle Road Alliance’—they have been around since the era of the Nankai Hawks.

Unlike the ’Eagle Road Alliance,’ which is rooted in the Kyushu local strategy, the ’National Green Warriors’ support scope covers the entire country, including Kansai, Kantou, and Kyushu, and they often accompany the team on away matches.

Logically, since both are Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks fans, the relationship between these two groups should be harmonious—they are, after all, a family—but that is not the case.

Their feud dates back to 2000:

In the last Japan Series of the 20th century, the Yomiuri Giants led by Nagashima Shigeo and the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks led by Wang Zhenzhi faced off, a match-up of legendary player managers meeting at the peak of their managerial careers. It attracted countless Japanese fans.

It was in this year’s Japan Series that as Daiei Hawks seized victory twice at the Tokyo Dome, leading with a score of 2-0 and with Japan’s Number One title in sight, the Yomiuri Giants turned the series around by winning three consecutive games at the Fukuoka Dome.

In the 6th game of the series, as the game returned to Tokyo Dome, the supporters of the "Eagle Road Alliance" and the "National Green Warriors" naturally followed the team to Tokyo, hoping to push the game into a Game 7.

But during this game, the ’Eagle Road Alliance,’ without seeking permission from the ’National Green Warriors,’ arbitrarily used the ’score opportunity theme song’ that was only used in Fukuoka, making the Green Warriors’ fans feel extremely disrespected.

Especially as Shiroyama Kenshi took the lead with a home run, yet the Daiei Hawks fell to the Giants 3-9, losing the championship—a loss that the ’National Green Warriors’ fans attributed to the ’Eagle Road Alliance’s lack of respect, saying it cost the team the chance to push the series to Game 7, leaving a grudge between the two groups ever since.

Now, many years later, the specifics of right and wrong are not that important, but the rift between the two groups has never healed.

At least as the current president of the ’Eagle Road Alliance,’ Masao Otake was focused on one thing:

For the Lin Guanglai support anthem, the ’Eagle Road Alliance’ must take the lead!